BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

This appears in the Monday July 28 2013 edition of the Business Mirror.

Of a knockout and an upset

by rick olivares

The talk about Chris Weidman knocking out Anderson
Silva has not abated. Sure Weidman was undefeated in five UFC matches (nine
overall) heading into their July 6 encounter. But some weren’t impressed in the
manner they felt that Chael Sonnen or Stephen Bonnar made for good foils for
Silva. Even news about a rematch between the two isn’t satisfying for some who
feel that the fight was rigged. So maybe there is the lack of respect about
Weidman, hence, talk of a fix.

But I’d like to digress.

If you’ve watched Anderson Silva through the years,
you will have witnessed not only his greatness as the best Mixed Martial Arts
fighter in the world but also his propensity to put on bizarre performances
where he showboats, taunts, or barely puts on an effort in dispatching foes.

Those who are shocked obviously have not watched Silva
before and are just like those guys on Sports Illustrated Now who wondered if
the fight was rigged. Incredibly, two of the SI panelists never even saw the
fight! So much for making an informed opinion.

For your information, Silva’s done it a lot – put his
hands down, egged on his foe to throw him something -- to bait opponents into
wading in and overextending themselves before he counters with a kick, a knee,
or even a haymaker of his own. Vitor Belfort knows that all too well.

Now when a foe like Chael Sonnen does a lot of
pre-match trash talking, then Silva dispenses with the showboating to do some
serious butt kicking. Sonnen, 0-2 against Silva, knows. Now.

Apparently, Silva didn’t think that Weidman,
undefeated heading into their UFC 162 fight, was the real deal. After all, the
erstwhile champ won 16 consecutive matches including 10 straight title
defenses. To steal a line from UFC anchor Mike Goldberg, Anderson Silva “has a
knack for making great fighters look ordinary.”

So maybe Silva is entitled to his arrogance. Why he
even brought out the Muhammad Ali dancing around the ring for good measure
against Weidman.

But as former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Luke
Rockhold (who lost last May to Vitor Belfort in a UFC match in Brazil) tweeted,
“The showboating finally caught up to him.”

Weidman is the type of fighter who will give Silva
problems. The Brazilian acknowledged that in all the pre-match interviews.
Silva noted that the New Yorker was a complete fighter – he’s good at grappling
and wrestling, is a Jiu Jitsu artist, and has a good stand up game. Silva, on
the other hand, is a stand up fighter with great striking ability and is even
frightening on the counter. Grappling is not really his game and he admitted
so.

What Weidman did successfully in the first round was
to takedown Silva and attempt a submission. The Brazilian recovered his guard
and they got back to the center of the ocatagon.

Silva teased with some of his kicks and punches
however Weidman moved out of the way.

In the second round, Silva did his best impression of
Neo from The Matrix as he dodged some of those bombs being thrown by Weidman.
The Brazilian even pretended to be hurt before Weidman caught him with a left
that dropped him lack a sack of potatoes.

In a fight, you have to suspend your disbelief and
know that anything can happen. I guess people are still reeling from that
knockout heard around the world when Juan Manuel Marquez dropped Manny
Pacquiao. And way before that, there was Iron Mike Tyson kissing the canvass
after James ‘Buster’ Douglas knocked him out for the first time in his career.
That fight has been described as one of the most shocking upsets in sports
history.

You might say that’s boxing. But in the sweet
science’s cousin, MMA, there was Dan Henderson knocking out Fedor ‘The Last
Emperor’ Emelianenko in Strikeforce bout in July of 2011. Emelianenko is
probably the greatest MMA heavyweight in the sport’s history and he was
pounding on Henderson when the latter escaped a mount and threw an uppercut that
was followed by hammer fists to knock out the Russian in the first round.

There’s also a 43-year old Randy Couture who was retired
from MMA and was doing color work for the UFC when he was lured out of the
booth to face a 31-year old Tim Sylvia who was on a six-bout win streak. Incredibly,
Couture dominated all five rounds to win the UFC’s heavyweight title. And yes,
at age 43.

And there is Matt Serra’s win over Georges St. Pierre
in UFC 69. Serra was a plus-700 underdog to the Canadian who was being hailed
as the next big thing in MMA. A looping right hand caught GSP and Serra waded
in to finish him off. And I’d say that given the circumstances and Serra’s
background (he was cut from the UFC and made it back via The Ultimate Fighter),
this has to be the biggest upset in MMA let alone sports history.

Now for Chris Weidman knocking out
Anderson Silva? If one alone were to win via reputation then we need not go
through all of this. Fixed fight? Not at all. Weidman is a modern-day Rocky
Balboa.

And this is why you fight the fight.

Anderson Silva is brought to tears by the allegations of throwing the fight:

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What I do for a living?

I also write regularly for Business Mirror; philstar.com; abs-cbnnews.com, and rappler.com.

I am also currently the media officer for the Filoil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup, the National Basketball Training Center, and the Flying V Davao Thunders.

I do PR consultancy for a variety of clients that I do not want to divulge.

I used to teach journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University hand have given lectures about journalism, new media, marketing, and public relations at the Ateneo, UP Diliman, UST, San Beda, Immaculate Conception Academy, Miriam College, Mindanao State University, FIFA seminars, and a few other schools and organizations.

I used to write for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippines Free Press, and Maxim Philippines. I have also contributed to FHM, Men's Health, Tower Sports NBA, Rebound, and a few other sports, interior design, and lifestyle magazines as well. Most recently, I was the editor-in-chief of PBA Life, the Official Lifestyle Magazine of the Philippine Basketball Association as well as Season 40 edition of Hardcourt, the season-in-review.

My blog, Bleachers' Brew, serves as a hub for many of my writings (but not all as there are some that are exclusive).

When I have free time, I listen to my collection of over 5,000 CDs, read, watch DVDs, or walk my dog around the subdivision.